UAE Rendered $5.5 Billion in Assistance to Yemen, says Al Jarman

April 9, 2019

UAE’s aid to Yemen has crossed $5.41 billion (Dh19.86 billion) over the past four years and it has reached out more than 17.2 million Yemenis between April 2015 and December 2018, according to a senior official’s statement on Monday.

Ahmad Abdul Rahman Al Jarman, an assistant foreign minister for human rights, stated that the crucial role the UAE played in Yemen has gone beyond offering aid to victims of military action— it’s a formative role that manages facets of life from repairing the infrastructure, ensuring the continuation of education for children and youth, constructing hospitals and resisting the epidemic, which almost killed those dislodged by the Houthi rebels. He made this comment during the opening speech at the second conference on International Humanitarian law at the Bab Al Qasr Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

Since April 2015, the UAE has worked on food aid programmes, the building and renovation of schools, reinstating hospitals and backing Yemen’s health care sector, reintegrating utility facilities, which include power plants, renovation of the roads infrastructure to meet the basic necessities of over 17.2 million Yemenis, including 11.2 million children and 3.3 million women.

During 2018, the UAE offered $1.24 billion, about $465 million of which was assigned to back the UN Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, YHRP.
Al Jarman, who is also the chairman of the National Committee For International Humanitarian Law, mentioned that the UAE places a huge importance on saving human lives and reducing the suffering wherever it is seen and it is the heart of the UAEs humanitarian action, referring to the help offered to Somalia, Kosovo, Lebanon and Afghanistan.

The two-day event brought together important experts and representatives of national committees on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) as well as major UAE officials to debate on matters 70 years on from the Geneva Convention, humanitarian action, new technologies in warfare, IHL, the challenges of compliance with IHL, counter-terrorism violence, and to review the experience and expertise of IHL national commissions.